Organized in 1824 as the Jonesboro Methodist Congregation, this is the oldest Methodist church in Saline County. Early preachers Jesse Green and Justinian Williams were also cabinet-makers, and George Caleb Bingham, later famous as a genre painter, apprenticed under them and tried preaching, so this early congregation probably heard him preach. Among the first members were Wyatt Bingham, Adam Steel, Walker Adkinson, their wives, and Benjamin Brown. In 1857 Crawford Early Smith donated $300 and five acres for the first church, whose construction was supervised by Gervas S. Smith. J.T. Stouffer and E.A. Stouffer got off a steamboat in Arrow Rock looking for work and found it building the church. The building cost $2,000 and was fully paid when completed. The current church was dedicated May 5, 1895, using hewn timbers from the first church, and it too was paid for when completed at a cost of $2,600. During the dark days of the Civil War, no regular services were held, and oral tradition tells of frantic efforts by a group of men to put out a roof fire because Confederate gunpowder was stored in the attic.